WHO WOULD EVER have thought New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would play any role in the battle to determine who next represents much of Marietta and Cobb County in Congress? And who would ever have expected one of the candidates in that race — state House Majority Whip Ed Lindsey — to call another of the candidates, former Congressman Bob Barr — a “Mad Hatter”?

Welcome to the race for the 11th District seat in Congress.

Former Rep. Barr (R-Smyrna) is seen by many as the front-runner in the crowded field, thanks in large part to the name recognition carrying over from his decade in Washington in the 1990s and his work as a high-profile spokesman for gun rights, courtesy of his seat on the board of the National Rifle Association.

Also running for the GOP nomination in the heavily conservative 11th are software company cofounder Tricia Pridemore of Marietta, state Sen. Barry Loudermilk of Bartow County and Buckhead’s Lindsey. Incumbent Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) has announced plans to run for U.S. Senate rather than another term in the House.

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PRIMARY DAY is not until May 20 (to which it was moved on Monday from June 3 by federal Judge Steve Jones), but the sniping has already been underway and ramped up a notch on Monday, courtesy of a fundraising letter sent out by Lindsey’s campaign that takes direct aim at Barr.

Barr wrote in an Aug. 14 column on Townhall.com, headlined “It’s Time Conservatives Show Christie the Door,” that it would be a mistake for Republicans to nominate Christie for president in 2016.

“There should be no room in the GOP for Christie’s nebulous, if not disingenuous, political games,” Barr wrote, “and, it is time conservatives show him the door before his carefully self-nurtured image as the GOP ‘tough guy’ … destroys any remaining semblance of the conservative GOP base first constructed by Ronald Reagan two generations ago.”

Said Barr of Christie, “He is a liberal masquerading as a conservative.”

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ANSWERED LINDSEY, “Like Alice tumbling through the rabbit hole into a realm of the contrary and grotesque, there are those curious moments in politics when absurdity has the edge. For Bob Barr, a Republican defector, demanding our party kick out a popular governor is one of those moments.”

Lindsey noted that Barr had deserted the Republican Party in a fruitless bid for higher office, describing him as “the failed 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate-cum-Mad Hatter.”

Barr has been called many things by his political opponents through the years, but this is probably a first for “Mad Hatter.”

Added Lindsey, “The irony is almost too great. This is the same Bob Barr who bolted from the GOP, abandoning many of the policies he once held, and campaigned for president as a Libertarian in 2008 to peel away GOP votes, knowing such a move would help Barack Obama win the White House. The same Bob Barr who now, believing his old party was again politically ascendant, wants Republicans to return him to Congress.”

Lindsey went on to rattle off a series of issues on which he says Barr has changed sides, including legalization of marijuana, gay marriage and illegal immigration.

“Republican-turned-libertarian-turned-Republican Bob Barr may think Ronald Reagan would disapprove of Christie, whom he believes is a ‘liberal masquerading as a conservative,’ but it was the former president who famously lectured unfit political gatekeepers that his “80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy,” Lindsey said.

“We Republicans are savvy enough to spot a phony, and certainly savvy enough to do so without the political revolving door Bob Barr lecturing us,” he concluded.

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BARR told Around Town on Monday afternoon that he had not seen the release in question, although he’d heard about it.

“Frankly, I have been focusing on real issues important to voters and businesses in the 11th District — including Obamacare, tax reform, cutting the deficit, reducing regulations, and government spying. I will continue to focus on these issues.”

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THURSDAY’S LUNCHTIME TALK to Marietta Kiwanians by Georgia Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell of Smyrna drew at least one unexpected guest: Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen D. Kelley, who is in Marietta trying the case of accused baby-killer De’Marquise Elkins. The trial was moved to Cobb because of pre-trial publicity. …

Blackwell was squired around the club by fellow Justice and longtime Marietta Kiwanian Harris Hines. When he took the podium, Blackwell was quick to point out that Hines was sworn in this month by former Gov. Zell Miller as that court’s “presiding justice,” after having been selected as such by vote of the other justices.

COBB STATE COURT Solicitor Barry Morgan showed off his musical chops at Friday’s meeting of the Cobb Republican Women, playing the National Anthem on the trumpet. Morgan was a high school band director years ago before going into the law.

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THE MDJ’S Don McKee will devote his column Wednesday to his first-person recollections of covering the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a reporter for The Associated Press. McKee heard King deliver earlier versions of the “I Have a Dream” speech on several occasions that year while covering civil-rights demonstrations led by King in Albany, and elsewhere. McKee, who had covered King during his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956, later went on to write the first-ever biography of King.

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FORMER WellStar CEO Dr. Greg Simone has opened a “Personalized Cardiology” private practice in the Kennestone East office park in Marietta. Its retainer-based business model will translate to enhanced personal consultation and assistance monitoring the work of the patient’s other doctors, among other things, he says.

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THE DEDICATION AND FACILITY TOUR for the new Marietta Performing Arts Center will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 7 and are open to all. They will be followed by an invitation-only concert by The Georgia Symphony Orchestra at 7.

HAPPY HUNDREDTH! Marietta Rotarians have a party planned for their meeting Wednesday at the Marietta Conference Center to help longtime member John Strother celebrate his birthday, which comes around Sunday for the 100th time.

Lockheed retiree Strother is a former member of the Cobb school board and served as an Army major in England in the Quartermaster’s Corps during the lead-up to D-Day during World War II. Strother looks a good three decades younger than his actual age and married last year for the third time.

I like the term 'Mad Hatter' for Bob Barr! That's HI-Larious & appropriate. Time to let the adults represent us & get past the shrillnees that haters of America like Barr, spout. They do it becauset they have nothing to contribute, so they do what it takes to get attention. It is a play by the Collective of those Doomsday Preppers who would rather root for the apocalypse, than for America to succeed via a path different than their morbid desires of oblivion.

Nominating a - dare I say it - a moderate is the only hope the Republican Party has of slowing down the Hillary Highball Express. Another right wing GOP robot will not get the job done. Christie is the only hope right now and will be after the knock down, drag out fight that the primaries will be. The GOP primary season will be the best comedic show in town, again. The Dems can't wait to watch the candidates try to prove who is the most conservative. Who's going to try to define "real rape" this time?

I want my politicians (yes, I said it politicians, 'cause that's what we elect in our political process, like it or not) to be able to work with their allies, as well as their opponents. The likes of Bob Barr does not know how to do this & his way only wastes our time in 'no-win' blather-matches. We have too much too do indulge the ego of Bob Barr & his promoters of depression. These Socialists in Sheeps clothing will not be happy until we all lose our identies & think like them.

archlab

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September 03, 2013

I want my politicians (yes, I said it politicians, 'cause that's what we elect in our political process, like it or not) to be able to work with their allies, as well as their opponents.

Perhaps we need some Moderation with their power. The likes of Bob Barr does not know how to do this & his way only wastes our time in 'no-win' blather-matches. We have too much too do indulge the ego of Bob Barr & those who fear those who think for themselves. These Socialists (yes, think about it...Socialists) in Sheeps clothing will not be happy until we all lose our identities, shut up & think like them.

BIAS ALERT

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August 27, 2013

That's a pretty one sided reading of Lindsey's press release. I read it and found it funny and accurate. Are you sure you're not just a Bob Barr supporter?

If Republicans are dumb enough to pick Chris Christie as the nominee for Republican Party in the next election than Hillary Hitler Clinton will be the next Czar of The Unites Socialist Republic. No way can that rude Yankee used car salesman carry the south all those vote will go independent. Than the Republican Party can rest in peace and the U. S. will plunge into a civil war!! When they come to get the guns it’s game on and you know it.

So our Presidential candidate will be one extreme or the other from either party? I want a President who is realistic, balanced and offers solutions for everyone. I want a President who takes care of U.S. citizens First and does NOT spread our limited funds among countries around the world, while resulting in only giving its own citizens Partial solutions. I also want U.S. Senators & Representatives who do the same thing and especially treat U.S. citizens as well as they treat themselves- examples are healthcare insurance and retirement/pension/social security.

And to make it clearer, I want a President, Senators & Representatives who do not stick their nose in the business of other countries and I do NOT want them to send our troops to any country that has unrest. What is the difference how they die- guns, bombs or chemical gas? Unless they attack us, then let them settle their own problems. We do not like countries to tell us what to do, so what gave us the right to tell some other country? We have enough problems to solve right here in the U.S.

Robert Vaughn

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August 27, 2013

Nothing Ed Lindsey said here addresses issues important to me and my family or residents of the 11th. Barr is right, the GOP should show Christy the door, and Ed Lindsay should learn that the citizens of the 11th have had enough and will not tolerate his negative campaigning.

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